Gather to save the Willow Tree

[gregnadeau.livejournal.com]

Noon Sunday, under the tree.

Comments

[ron_newman]

Is that when the landscaping crew is supposed to return? Please say a little more.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

They're coming Saturday.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Dude, the property owner already gave the reason for cutting the tree down - are you going to pay the bills when parts of the tree come down and damage neighboring cars and fences and pull down electric wires?

Also, are you and the busybodies who stopped it the first time going to pay for the contracting company to come out the second time?

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

This. It's really pretty clear that the tree has to go. Now, if you want to put in some kind of effort to try and transplant it elsewhere -- if that's even possible -- that's one thing. But this is frankly getting ridiculous. I know it's part of local history, I know it's important to a lot of people, but it's damaging the buildings and infrastructure around it.

[ron_newman]

For those tuning in late, pierceheart is referring specfically to this letter from the property owner, Joe Benoit.

[firepail.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Give it up, the tree must come down. What is it with all the tree-huggers living in an urban area?

[derekp.livejournal.com]

Heck,

Even if the tree was not causing any damage whatsoever, it is still private property. Sure, it's pretty and it's old, but that alone doesn't classify for any sort of historic protection.

I love trees. But that particular tree is not mine.

[richips.livejournal.com]

I need a crew in white dresses to come with me.

also, i call the oven, because of Sylvia.

[elizethesleaze.livejournal.com]

haha thats all i can think of from these posts

[gwodder.livejournal.com]

Death is part of life.

Even the magnificent live. Death is part of their magnificence.

Love that friends and neighbors feel for one who goes to die is not rendered meaningless by the death of the one they love.

We are alive. Death is part of us. If we really care, we do not gather around the death-bed of one we love to fight death but to witness it, and to celebrate a life, which we must have always known would come to an end.


thanks

[genesayssitdown.livejournal.com]

if you like that tree so much why don't you marry it

[richips.livejournal.com]

I will, thanks.

[ron_newman]

But Massachusetts bans mixed marriages, between members of the animal and plant kingdoms.

[truered.livejournal.com]

I'm as heartbroken as anyone to see this tree go, but I understand for the safety of everyone that it must happen.

I would encourage all of you to go on Sunday not to fight to save this tree, but to view it one last time, take your camera, and give it a peaceful and gracious farewell.

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

I'm going to miss the tree. It was cool, it looked like it could eat people!

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about it as this tree (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_Willow).

[genesayssitdown.livejournal.com]

but really i can understand why you don't want this tree to go. a tree at the highschool i went to had it's gigantic iconic beech tree chopped down because it was rotting and unable to support it's gigantism any longer. i mean this tree was the symbol of the school and everything. the place has never looked right since.

i mean i feel like i've seen this pbs documentary, some scientists from mit should just undertake a grand project to save this tree and protect the surrounding environment from it. somehow.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

It's a nice tree, but it's causing too many problems to the public. If I'm the landowner, I'm getting anybody who interferes arrested.

Seriously, it must be nice to have nothing better to worry about than this, especially in these times.

[billharnois.livejournal.com]

I've captured video of this event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSEaHyzbqTA&feature=related

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

let us all scream for the trees!

now, if you say, had $750,000 laying about, as a starter, and a sky-crane helicopter, and about 1-2 weeks of careful full-time digging and a place to PUT the tree before the ground freezes, yah, sure, you MIGHT be able to move it. the permits might be a bit much, and it would leave a GAPING hole the likes of which would take a month to deal with - pipes, sewerage, road repair, and of course damage to private property.

so "not so much".

i imagine that some after-damage will have to be dealt with as the non exposed root systems that have penetrated various pipes, sewers, and such collapse. yar.

the best solution is to raze all the buildings 100 feet in radius around the tree, and put a nice park in, as someone suggested. yah.

#

*super win*

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

I really thought someone had made a youtube of the willow tree mass arrest, but this made my day.

[purpless77.livejournal.com]

I think people would like proof of the damage. If it was interfering with the sewers it would be a city concern. This seems to be the sole concern of the home owner. The reason a lot of people are trying to save things such as old trees is because we've been seeing cities fall apart and lose a lot of it's nature due to land owners only caring about money.
As a kid I watched a beautiful backyard turn into a parking lot.
A few streets over we watched a two hundred year old tree get torn down for a pool. I have friends who grew up in the suburbs around beautiful greenery just to go back today and see nothing but buildings, shopping centers and apartment buildings. I'm glad people are fighting this.
IF, it truly is interfering with things such as the sewer pipes, I think the previous suggestion of moving it or taking parts of it to move and grow in other area parks is a fantastic idea.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

it is not just the sewer or things underground that risk damage. the most potential damage from a willow of this size and age is when it drops limbs. note that i say limbs and not such branches.

large willows and old willows drop entire sections of very large limbs in high winds or heavy rains. its likely that this property owner has had many a close call in the last few decades given that this tree is roughly a century old. in my frond yard growing up we had four 80-yr-old willows that were taller than the tree at hand. every big storm would bring down a limb or two or three that was easily the size of a small child or larger. that's just how willows are when they are old.

limb-dropping aside, the root systems of a tree like that are a serious issue, too. whenever you look at a tree, imagine that the roots form an almost mirror-image underneath the ground. pine trees have a long and deep root system, for example, a tree will grow roots as wide as the crown of the tree and as deep into the ground as the tree is tall 9unless hindered by rock, etc). the tree in question is gigantic willows grow roots that are as wonderfully tendril-like as their branches. in a city setting, this tree has probabaly been a thorn in lots of people's sides for a long long time due to roots getting everywhere underground. if the only motivation for chopping it down was so that a root wouldn't hinder a sewer pipe in the future, this tree would have been kindling several decades ago judging from it size.

the neighborhood is much too dense to just tell people to watch out for flying killer branches in anything stronger than a stiff breeze. this is not a greed issue, this is a safety issue, a courtesy issue, and a legal issue.
this is just how the world works. somerville is an extremely dense city but we all chose to live here. we cannot turn this dense city into a forested green-space and we can't pave over everything. we can, however, use common sense in approaching problems like these by looking for more points of view than we may have on our own.

everyone please relax

[juliaprange.livejournal.com]

First, I would like everyone to know that the tree is not being removed on Sunday. If you read back to the letter I posted from our landlord, you will see that he has agreed to collect an official arborist's evaluation to share with us, and anyone in the community who would like to fully understand why the cherished tree must come down.

The reason we reacted the way we did on Wednesday was because we were given no warning and in fact were given misinformation about what was about to happen to the tree. We felt we deserved honesty and communication which, at the point, we had not received.

Our landlord is now respecting the community's desire to understand the situation just as much as we are respecting his decision to take it down. Yes, the tree is on private property, and without a tree preservation ordinance, which many cities have, the public has no rights regarding its demise. We are thankful that Mr.Benoit has chosen to take the high road to respect the community by acknowledging the public assets currently provided by that tree (neighborhood character, shade, beautification, breeze, cooling) which will be lost to all with its removal.

Also, we have received no orders to clear the driveway and the yard, which would be necessary for the operation to take place.

Please, everyone, relax and try to be understanding of everyone in this situation. Thank you.

Re: everyone please relax

[ron_newman]

Thanks again for posting this. I'm curious though -- what 'misinformation' were you and the other residents given about what was going to happen to the tree?

Walking around your neighborhood yesterday, I saw several temporary paper No Parking signs still posted with a date of 11/12/08, with "Tree Work" given as the reason.